We can either dig deep inside a Poul Anderson text, always finding more there than we expect, or use it as a springboard to discuss more general issues.
Adzel, drunkenly lecturing a drinking companion on Mahayana Buddhism, says:
"'...Nirvana...'s t' be achieved in this life -...
"'...reincarnation not all necesshry to the idea uh Karma... -...'" (V, p. 131)
"...realized..." is more appropriate than "...achieved..."
Does Adzel mean that Buddhists teach not "reincarnation" but "rebirth" or that actions and their consequences can be discerned within a single lifetime? I understand my personal actions as happening only in this life and their consequences as occurring only in this world but I am not an orthodox Mahayanist. Recently, I conversed with a Zen monk who seemed to be as certain of the bardo as a post-mortem state as I am of Lancaster as a destination for the 55 bus. Where do people get this certainty about their mutually incompatible beliefs about hereafters?
If there is any kind of hereafter - which I utterly doubt -, then it needs to be a realm in which everyone learns a lot.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Take another gander at Anderson's story "Pact." Aside from the humor of a human scientist outwitting a demon, take note of how that scientist planned to use his afterlife precisely for learning.
Ad astra! Sean
Post a Comment